"Common Foot Ailments"

Metatarsalgia

Testimonials

REVIEWS OF DR. SCHULER

During your life if you ever experienced a burning sensation on the bottom of your feet, it might be due a medical condition known as Metatarsalgia . Metatarsalgia is a term for foot pain and or burning on the ball of the feet that intensifies when walking or running on hard surfaces; numbness or tingling sensations in the toes; pain when walking barefoot. It is also a major cause of swelling of the feet

It is not usual for these burning discomforts to start on the balls of the feet and then spread into the toes or up the legs. Many patients have these leg problems, and it disturbs their sleep. In a new 5 minute video national known podiatrist, foot specialist Dr. Burton S. Schuler of Panama City, Fl , ( director of the Ambulatory Foot Clinics Podiatric Pain Management Center), has produced another new video metatarsalgia for the public. Schuler is also the author of the 2009 book Why You Really Hurt: It All Starts In The Foot which is the story of the Morton’s Toe and how it can cause pain thru out the whole body

This video about this is just one in the ongoing videos Dr. Schuler plans to presents to the public concerning the foot and all of it problems. Schuler stated

” it is our aim to have eventfully one of the largest video library s available concerning the human foot and its problems”

Heel pain is a general term that includes many different etiologies including: plantar fasciitis, plantar fasia tear, tarsal tunnel syndrome, Baxter’s nerve entrapment, calcaneal stress fracture, calcaneal cysts, soft tissue mass, short flexor tendon tear, gout, and systemic arthritis (lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis). While plantar fasciitis is the most common of these conditions, it is highly possible that heel pain could be something else and thus foot and ankle specialists need to be familiar with the range of possible diagnoses (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/plantar-fasciitis/DS00508). One problem is that patients do not present right away when experiencing heel pain, unless they have an actual fascial tear that occurs during intense exercise, and is characterized by a “pop” sensation. Patients who have pain but do not experience an intense tear are likely to try many home therapies and endure weeks to months of chronic low-grade pain.

Dr. Burton S. Schuler http://www.footcare4u.com/category/about-dr-schuler/ has treated thousands of heel pain cases in his over 35 years podiatry of practice An author of two books on feet, including his most recent, Why You Really Hurt: It All Starts in the Foot, Schuler links heel pain to a short or hypermobile first metatarsal bone, which is a common condition but not so commonly linked to heel pain. Schuler makes a strong case for this connection between toe length and heel pain. This connection was made earlier by predecessor, Dr. Dudley Morton, who taught at Yale and Columbia medicals schools in the 1920-1940’s; and who wrote extensively about the short first metatarsal bone. This medical condition came to be known as “Morton’s Toe” because of Dr. Morton’s consistent research and writing on the condition (http://whyyoureallyhurt.com/#djm).

The first metatarsal bone is supposed to carry twice the weight as the second. But when it is shorter, it cannot carry this weight, requiring weight to be unevenly distributed and causing the second metatarsal bone to meet the ground before the first. The second metatarsal bone begins to do the first bone’s share of work, which places abnormal stress on many area of the foot—and that pain can spread not only to the legs but throughout the body. Another physician influenced by Dr. Dudley Morton, Dr. Janet Travell, studied how Morton’s Toe can be linked to myofascial pain in the body. Dr. Travell was a White House doctor to both Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and she had attended Morton’s lectures on the foot (http://www.footcare4u.com/category/dr-janet-travell/). Dr. Morton, Dr. Travell, and their contemporary equivalent, Dr. Schuler, remind us that causes of chronic heel pain can be demystified if we consider the cases of people with short metatarsal bones.

About the Author: Dr. Burton S. Schuler foot doctor, foot specialist, podiatrist of Panama City, Fl and the director of the Ambulatory Foot Clinics Podiatric Pain Management Center and is a leading authority on the Morton’s Toe, Long Second Toe and it associated problems.

If you have corns or experience a burning sensation in your foot, it is likely that this can be caused by a general medical problem referred to as “metatarsalgia.” This term is best described as an “umbrella term” for foot pain. Metatarsalgia symptoms may include: pain in the foot; pain that intensifies when walking or running; pain that is higher when walking on hard surfaces; numbness or tingling sensations in the toes; pain when walking barefoot (http://health.ezinemark.com/is-it-corns-or-metatarsalgia-31c88a37500.html).

In Why You Really Hurt: It All Starts in the Foot, the author, Dr. Burton S. Schuler, explains that common foot problems–many included in the general term metatarsalgia– are caused by Morton’s Toe, or a short first metatarsal bone, including burning, aching and throbbing on the balls of the feet. This throbbing takes place because when you have a Morton’s Toe, abnormal stress is applied to the ball of the foot (http://whyyoureallyhurt.com/mortons-toe/burning/). When this happens, the second through fifth metatarsal bones push down in an unusual manner against the ground. The result is injury to skin, nerves, muscles, and bursas at the ball of the foot. This is why the ball of the foot can burn, ache, hurt, and throb.

It is not usual for these burning discomforts to start on the balls of the feet and then spread into the toes or up the legs. Many patients have these leg problems, and it disturbs their sleep. Dr. Schuler reminds us that the physician who first wrote about Morton’s Toe, Dr. Dudley J. Morton, said these night “spasms” occur when foot and leg muscles are strained.

The first paper on Morton’s Toe by Dr. Dudley J. Morton appeared in 1927, in the prestigious Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (http://whyyoureallyhurt.com/mortons-toe/dr-dudley-j-morton/). The paper presented Morton’s theory about how a short first metatarsal bone has harmful effects on the foot. Another paper published in the same journal in 1928 described, for the first time, another condition of the first metatarsal bone known as “Hypermobility of the First Metatarsal Bone”. In these papers, Morton describes how a longer second toe can cause pain in the feet and legs, and throughout the body.

As with many other problems caused by Morton’s Toe, metatarsalgia–burning, aches, and pains on the ball of the foot–can be treated with a simple little Toe Pad that can realign the whole front part of the foot and allow it to work properly (http://whyyoureallyhurt.com/home/#tp).